Many of today's handheld devices make use of wireless “connections” for telephony, digital data transfer, geographical positioning, and the like. Despite differences in frequency spectra, modulation methods, and spectral power densities, the wireless connectivity standards use synchronized data packets to transmit and receive data. In general, all of these wireless capabilities are defined by industry-approved standards (e.g. IEEE 802.11 and 3GPP LTE) which specify the parameters and limits to which devices having those capabilities must adhere.
At any point along the device-development continuum, it may be necessary to test and verify that a device is operating within its standards' specifications. Most such devices are transceivers, that is, they transmit and receive wireless RF signals. Specialized systems designed for testing such devices typically contain subsystems designed to receive and analyze device-transmitted signals (e.g., vector signal analyzers, or VSAs) and to send signals (e.g., vector signal generators, or VSGs) that subscribe to the industry-approved standards so as to determine whether a device is receiving and processing the wireless signals in accordance with its standard.
Conventional approaches have included a system and method for testing multiple devices simultaneously using a single tester. This can reduce the overall test-time per device because multiple devices are tested in the same time period.
Other conventional approaches have included a system and method for testing a device containing a predefined test sequence which enables the device and tester to execute such predefined test sequence while engaging in minimal non-test control interactions. This can reduce the overall test-time per device because it reduces the amount of time involved in non-test control communications.
However, such approaches have not been capable of simultaneous testing of devices with predefined test sequences, due to differences in synchronization timing of the individual devices and the challenge this poses on coordinated execution of predefined test sequences.